Research During Residency
The Department of Psychiatry of Weill Cornell Medical College offers a wide range of opportunities for clinical, translational and basic neuroscience research. Investigators in the department are examining core questions in psychiatry in the areas of neurobiology and developmental neurobiology, genetics, cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, neuropharmacology/psychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, pathophysiology of disease, psychotherapy, services research, and the history of psychiatry. Residents have the opportunity to interact with postdoctoral fellows in a number of postgraduate research training programs associated with the department, and may go on to a postdoctoral research fellowship on completion of their residency training.
Research is integrated into the residency beginning in the PGY-I year, expanding each subsequent year. For residents with prior research training on a path to a career including significant research, specially tailored residency training is possible, providing substantial ongoing research development while preserving strong clinical training. For residents without substantial prior experience, residency training includes exposure to research and the completion of a scholarly project in an area of special interest.
At the annual Research Day residents are introduced to investigators in the Department and learn about ongoing research and research opportunities. Every resident attends Resident Journal Club. PGY-II residents are exposed to major concepts in research in course work focused on this topic. PGY-II coursework also includes exposure to functional neuroimaging, and other current neuroscientific modalities of research. Beginning in January, the research committee meet with every PGY-II resident to explore areas of special interest, consider areas of investigation or scholarly pursuit, and discuss options for mentorship. Each resident is paired with a mentor in his/her area of interest. All residents are encouraged to begin mentored scholarly investigation during the PGY-II year, which may include literature review, project design, IRB approval, and the learning of relevant techniques or instruments for the investigation. In the PGY-III year, residents continue to explore research in psychiatry through coursework on research as it pertains to psychopharmacology and psychotherapy, as well as coursework exploring research design. Each PGY-III resident continues to work on his/her mentored project. In the PGY-IV year, every resident has 6 months of 70% research time to complete his/her scholarly project which is then presented in a Senior Research Colloquium for residents and faculty. (see Resident Graduation Papers) Selected projects are presented at Departmental Grand Rounds and at the American Psychiatric Association District Branch Residents Research Day. All residents in the PGY-III and IV year are allowed 5 days of conference time to attend a conference of residents choice. Resident research is supported with funds from the Department of Psychiatry and paper or poster presentations at national meetings are supported with travel grants from the Department. Residents are encouraged and assisted in submitting papers for publication (see Resident Publications ) Throughout the 4 years of residency training, all residents are invited to request extra time for investigative work, from a committee including the Vice-chair for Research and the Residency Training Director. This time is created by freeing-up time from clinical duties based on the residents having demonstrated the need for and the ability to use this extra time. Such awards are made on a case-by-case basis with every effort made to help every resident see his/her project through to completion.
Research Program Leadership
Dr. BJ Casey directs the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, the Center for Brain, Gene and Behavioral (CBGB) research, and the Neuroscience Program at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She is the Sackler Professor of Developmental Psychobiology and Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College. She completed her graduate work at USC in experimental psychology and behavioral neuroscience and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health using structural and magnetic resonance imaging to investigate neural correlates of psychiatric disorders. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants and is on the NIMH Board of Scientific Counselors and NARSAD Scientific Council and is a NYAS Fellow.
Dr. Casey is a pioneer in novel uses of neuroimaging methodologies to examine human behavior and brain development and how it goes awry in clinical disorders. She grounds her human behavioral and imaging work in collaborative animal studies of learning (rodent) and decision making (nonhuman primate) to identify mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability across development. Her work takes a developmental psychobiological perspective in understanding the role of gene-environment interactions on behavior with a focus on typical and atypical developmental trajectories of behavioral and brain-based change. She has developed an influential theoretical model of childhood disorders that have at the very core of them a problem suppressing an inappropriate thought or actions (e.g., childhood anxiety and depression, ADHD, autism) and developed behavioral marker tasks for assessing risk for such disorders. More recently she has discovered that adolescents are prone to poor decision making due to an imbalance between emotional centers of the brain involved in desire, fight and flight and prefrontal control regions that modulate these feelings. Her early imaging work published on adolescent anxiety and depression demonstrated greater resistance of these emotion centers to habituate with repeated presentation of empty threat. Dr Casey is now identifying genetic factors that contribute to this resistance phenotype with human and mouse genetics. This translational work is a first step in the direction of individualized and biologically targeted treatments for clinical disorders. For more information see: http://www.sacklerinstitute.org/cornell/people/bj.casey/
Dr. Francis Lee directs a molecular neurobiology laboratory in the Lasdon Research Building, and is a member of the Center for Brain, Gene and Behavioral (CBGB) research, Anxiety Disorders and ¬Traumatic Stress Studies Program, and the Neuroscience Program and Pharmacology Department at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Associate Attending Psychiatrist, New York Presbyterian Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree in physiological psychology from Princeton University, and an MD and PhD from the University of Michigan, followed by Psychiatry residency training at Payne Whitney Clinic. He obtained further postdoctoral training in molecular neuroscience at the Skirball Institute, New York University and the University of California, San Francisco. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants and has served on NIMH panels, as well as worked as an editor for the Archives of General Psychiatry and JAMA.
Dr. Lee is a pioneer in using cell biological and animal model systems to understand the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. In particular, his research is focused on using genetic models to delineate the role of growth factors, such as brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in complex behaviors related to affective disorders. The laboratory has recently produced one of the first mouse models of a human genetic variant that has led to novel insights into the molecular and genetic basis of anxiety, as well as drug response. This line of research provides not only a first step in creating animal model systems of human genetic variants to test novel therapeutics, but also to devise biomarker strategies to determine who will and will not respond to psychiatric medications. For more information see: http://www.cornellphysicians.com/fslee